Apr 24, 2025

Luke and His family are continuing to get by with the help of God's Grace and the prayerful and physical support being provided by so many of you.

Luke was able to come back to the house for a beautiful Easter feast prepared with love by his sister Sarah. Christ is Risen!

Luke was transferred out of the Trauma unit at Foothills on Tuesday April 22nd, and is now at the Carewest Muscular Skeletal (MSK) Clinic at Rockyview. Only a few minutes drive from home!

This is where Luke can get going on his physical recovery in earnest.

Luke is continuing to improve day by day. Yesterday he was walking on a two wheeled walker(as opposed to the 4 wheeled table top walker he had been using up til then), but he is still only able to bear weight on one leg. With two people assisting (just in case) when using the walker, it is a long way from independent movement, but hopefully within the next week he will be able to use it without assistance. In another week he should start being able to put some weight on his broken leg.

Luke's spirits seem high and he is taking on all of his physio directed exercises with vigor and diligence.

Otherwise all of his injuries appear to be recovering about as, if not better, than expected. Thankfully he has no new setbacks in an entire week!

Thank you again for keeping him and all of us in your prayers.

Thank you for all of your prayers and incredibly generous support.

Up until last Sunday Luke had been making amazing progress. Then on Monday or Tuesday Luke started struggling with fatigue and a pain in his unbroken leg's calf that everyone failed to diagnose as blood clots that were forming in his leg and more seriously in his lungs.

It was only by a series of 'improbable' circumstances that on Wednesday his physio therapist recognized what was happening in his leg and ordered an ultrasound that ultimately discovered the Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in his leg. The treatment for the DVT just happened to be the same as for the still undiscovered Pulmonary Embolism(PE) that was forming in his lungs. 

The sequence of events that led to Luke's life saving treatment can only be reasonably explained by the loving hand of God. Yet again, we are more in debt to His loving heavenly Father.  

The doctors think a major physical consequence of the blood clots is that Luke will have a 3 month recovery time for his body to dissolve the clots which has formed... Plus time for what is damaged in the lungs to be restored and healed. The good news is that he will have an extra incentive to give up smoking. That said, they believe that it should heal completely.

Another amazing part of this story is a spiritual one. Fr Oballo, one of our beautiful young Priests at St Anthony's , had independently arranged to come visit Luke (so he could bring him a donut) earlier in the week at what we would only realize later was the very time when Luke was at his worst. By what I can only describe as miracle, Luke made the decision to be fully restored to God. Thankfully, Fr Oballo was present and able to be the avenue of God's Amazing and Healing Grace. He administered to Luke all of Our Churches' Last Rites. 

I testify to you all that it was like Luke was given a "wonder drug". Over the next few hours, the pall of death that had hung over Luke disappeared like the fury of a summer thunderstorm that blows through the Rocky Mountain foothills , then quickly disappears into a sunny blue sky.

Who knew that donuts could be so healthy!

We are so thankful that for the second time in two weeks Luke has cheated death. Though understandably fatigued, He is once again back to making amazing progress. His spirit lightening, he has been able to smile once again. He even, having just finished 3 days of mandated bed rest, convinced his sister and cousin take him for a long wheelchair ride down the hill from Foothills hospital to the pathways along the Bow River on Sunday. There he was able to enjoy the amazing warmth and sunshine we were so blessed to have . 

As we enter into the last weeks of lent, I can't help but be reminded of how God transforms suffering into a glorious resurrection!

Luke and all of us give thanks to God, and all of you for your intercessory prayers and sacrifices! They are having an effect.

Ad majórem Dei glóriam!

Blessed Mother Mary, St Joseph, and St Ignatius of Loyola,

Pray for us.